The boulder pierced the air like a bullet.
There was no hesitation in Millet's throw — just raw desperation.
And maybe that's why it went faster than the first one.
He didn't know.
Didn't care.
All he knew was that it flew — hard and true — toward the icy ceiling of the tunnel.
He didn't wait to see the result.
He turned and ran.
Ran toward the exit, his bare feet striking the smooth ice, his lungs burning in his chest.
Then—
Crack.
The sound reached him like thunder.
Loud.
Deafening.
Like the mountain itself had roared in pain.
The tunnel shuddered.
And then — the world moved.
Not just the tunnel.
Everything.
The ground trembled beneath his feet. A deep rumble echoed through the cliffs. A noise like the sky splitting apart.
Millet turned his head — still running — and saw it.
The tunnel was collapsing behind him.
Chunks of ice the size of carriages plummeted from the ceiling, shattering as they struck the ground.
He should've felt relief.
He didn't.
Because a second later — he saw something else.
Snow.
A wall of it.
Rising behind the collapsing tunnel like a tidal wave.
An avalanche.
A massive one.
A sea of white was racing down the mountainside — devouring everything in its path.
And it was coming straight for him.
His stomach dropped.
His thoughts shattered.
It didn't matter if the creature died anymore.
That thing would be buried.
And so would he.
He ran harder.
The path ahead twisted along the cliffside — steep, narrow, exposed.
The avalanche came from above, but Millet's route was parallel to it — running along the length of the descending snow, not directly away from it.
That meant it was only a matter of time.
Seconds.
He didn't dare look back again.
He couldn't.
All that mattered now was each step. Each breath.
Each heartbeat.
Move.
His legs felt like fire.
His chest felt like it was being crushed.
His feet were frozen. His hands numb.
But he ran.
Faster.
Faster than he ever had in his life.
Faster than he should be able to.
Faster than what should be possible for a human.
The avalanche drew closer.
He could hear it now — the roar of snow consuming stone, ice, and earth. The mountain groaning under its weight.
A storm of white chaos chasing him like death itself.
Then—
Impact.
The edge of the avalanche struck the path.
The snow surged over the trail like a beast.
And Millet—
He was there.
Right on the cusp.
The edge caught him.
Buried him.
He fell forward as the snow swallowed his legs, then his back.
Pain erupted through his side as he slammed into the ground.
And then — silence.
Darkness.
Weight.
Everything stopped.
He didn't know how long he lay there — trapped under snow. Buried in cold silence.
Seconds? Minutes?
But slowly, he began to move.
Push.
The snow wasn't deep.
Not here.
He had outrun the bulk of it.
Just the edge had caught him.
He struggled, clawing upward through the freezing blanket.
His fingers scraped ice.
His breath came in short gasps.
But he made it.
His head broke through the surface.
The cold wind kissed his skin.
Millet pulled himself up — shaky, soaked, exhausted.
He stood.
Turned.
And saw—
Nothing.
The path behind him was gone.
Utterly destroyed.
The avalanche had erased it from existence.
The cliff was bare. Ice torn free. Rocks scattered. Snow piled in broken ridges where the path had once wound its way around the mountain.
And the tunnel?
Gone.
Not a trace of it remained.
The massive glacier nails, the frozen walls, the trap — all swept away.
Millet stared at the blank landscape in silence.
His body was trembling — not from the cold.
From the weight of what had just happened.
From the narrow thread between life and death.
"I hope it died," he muttered.
A whisper lost to the wind.
But someone — or something — heard.
Because a moment later, a voice answered.
Cold.
Distant.
Mechanical.
[You have killed a Kang Monster]
Millet's breath hitched.
He blinked.
"What…"
But before he could speak, before he could even move—
The world began to darken.
Not the sky.
Not the snow.
Everything.
His vision blurred.
His knees buckled.
His thoughts slowed.
"Am I… fainting?"
That was his last thought.
Then everything went black.